Registration is around the corner. In one tab, I have a Coursicle schedule with five classes that overlap. In the other, I have a poorly-drafted email for my advisor with the subject line “r u mad at me.” It is a miracle that I haven’t lost the piece of paper with my registration pin on it. By all means and purposes, I am flying by the seat of my pants.  

My friends and peers are baffled by my methodology. Surely, it would be easier, certainly less stressful, if I just caved and made a four-year plan. How long could it take to review the required courses and make a spreadsheet?  But my lack of planning isn’t really attributable to laziness or a penchant for procrastination; the truth is that I just don’t like thinking ahead at all.  

I dislike the idea that any amount of planning could make your future rigid and unchanging. When family members ask what I plan to do after graduation, I answer honestly that I have no idea. In the two years it will take to complete my bachelor’s, I could become a completely different person. I could decide that I have no interest in pursuing a professional career and become a fisherman in Alaska. Far-fetched, but the point is that I see no purpose in pretending that the me in the present has unlimited control and authority over the me in the future. 

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prudent. When it comes to registration, I know how many credits in each discipline I need to graduate on time, and I have a basic idea of which classes I need to complete my major. But making a spreadsheet with each specific course and elective I should take every semester from now until graduation? I won’t do it.  

Students are always told that they don’t have to figure everything out right now. But how often are we encouraged to practice that mantra? Is anyone genuinely reassured by those platitudes when every academic and professional checklist tells us that we need to worry about our future?  

If we really want to make the most of our lives, I think more of us need to embrace the feeling of being unprepared. It’s tempting to feel like you must constantly brace yourself for the next challenge, deadline, or job application, but too much planning can keep you from experiencing the present. Each day our life changes in some miniscule or major way that we couldn’t possibly anticipate. Hyper-focusing on a specific version of the future blinds you to the feelings and ideas you have right now — feelings and ideas that might lead you to believe you’d be more fulfilled as a fisherman than a lawyer. 

Don’t let your plans fix you in one place. Roll with the punches a little, and you’ll know yourself, and your future, a lot better.